Political and Constitutional Reform CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Jeremy Heywood, Secretary to the Cabinet

1. Thank you for your letter of 30 April.1

2. The Government’s commitment is to publish this information on a quarterly basis. In addition to information about ministers’ meetings with external organisations, departments also publish a range of other information including, for ministers, information on gifts and hospitality received and overseas travel; for special advisers, information on gifts and hospitality received and meetings with senior representatives of media organisations; for permanent secretaries, information on meetings with external organisations, business expenses and hospitality received; and for the most senior civil servants details of their expenses.

3. This is a considerable amount of information published by departments and it does take time to collate and check the information. However, I do agree that this information should be published as quickly as practicably possible, and I have asked departments to continue to work to speed up the process.

May 2012